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Tom LaRussa
04-18-2005, 11:36 AM
Made this a few days ago out of Honduran Rosewood. Doesn't have a finish on it yet.

I cut the blank on the bandsaw and rounded the sides with the router table.

I completely ruined my first attempt when I went too close to the end of the wood and the router tore a big piece of the horn clean off. Heck, I'm not sure that using the router even saved me any time, what with setup and the need to take little tiny cuts on four sides of the thing, then readjust everthing all over again.

Plus, the screetching noise, the dangerous cutter dangerously close to my fingies, the horrible wood powder all over the shop -- not to mention inside my clothes -- reminded me strongly of why I was never fond of that particular electron burner even before I got enlightened. Yuck.

But I have several planes that need new wood, so a couple days ago I bought a fairly narrow half-round rasp and a completely round cheese-grater planer thingie. Gonna try the next one by hand for comparison's sake.

Oh, a comment on tote making. Be very careful on your measurements for the location of the hole down the center of the thing. It's pretty easy to place it really far off. DAMHIKT!

http://home.earthlink.net/%7Etomlarussa/tote01.jpg


http://home.earthlink.net/%7Etomlarussa/tote02.jpg

Alan Turner
04-18-2005, 11:48 AM
Nice work. I have never made one, but it looks interesting.

Aaron Kline
04-18-2005, 11:49 AM
Great attempt Tom! I tried making some before and it didn't work too great. It came out OK, but the hole drilling went wayward on the drill press. So I just bought some:D

Tyler Howell
04-18-2005, 12:06 PM
Nice one Tom,

My feeble attempt to repair them hasn't worked well. I may need lessons:cool:

Roy Wall
04-18-2005, 12:11 PM
That looks reallly good Tom! Nice!

Mark Singer
04-18-2005, 12:16 PM
Tom,

Very nice ! Be careful! Routers are scary!

Dennis McDonaugh
04-18-2005, 1:10 PM
Good job Tom. I've made several, but not for planes because I never figured out how to drilll the hole.

Marc Hills
04-18-2005, 2:44 PM
Is it just me, or is the tote of an early Stanley bench plane just about the most graceful shape in all of tool-dom? That is absolutely beautiful, Tom.